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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1074.PDF
International, 16 April 1964 609 in MEA's reservations department boards indicate the status of all flights up to two months ahead. First-class is denoted by triangles and economy class by circles, with different colours—red, green and yellow— indicating whether the flight is booked, open or "on request." MEA do not envisage the need for a computer for at least ten years. The airline's main revenue-generating cities in order of importance are Beirut, London, Jerusalem, Rome and Kuwait Have you seen the Concord mock-up at Bristol, and do you think it is too cramped ? I have not seen the mock-up yet. I have been told that it looks like a tunnel, but it will be acceptable because of the short flight time. They wanted to keep the aircraft small in order to reduce the sonic boom. Have you ruled out the BAC One-Eleven ? We believe that for our routes the Caravelle is ideal as a Viscount replacement. The One-Eleven we like very much but, having bought the Caravelle, we find it very difficult to mix our fleet further. The fewer types we have the happier we shall be from an engineering and economic point of view. Asad Nasr: We were very interested in the One-Eleven at one time for the Jerusalem route. If the plans to improve Jerusalem airport go through we think the One-Eleven will be able to get in and out for short range work, though with a 15 per cent loss of payioad. If you decided on One-Elevens would you go into a maintenance arrangement with another airline ? Sheikh Najib: We are doing maintenance now for Kuwait Airways and they have One-Elevens on order. I believe that Kuwait Airways, on the advice of de Havilland, are considering setting up their own maintenance base in Kuwait. If this happens, naturally we would not be given their One-Elevens to maintain, which would make it doubly difficult for us to introduce the One- Eleven. So the One-Eleven is out ? Asad Nasr: Well, there is no doubt that the One-Eleven would give us the lowest cost per aircraft mile, but that in itself is not enough to buy an aircraft for one route only. If we had other airlines ordering One-Elevens then the whole matter could be studied in that light, but I think that one can safely say that at present we do not see how we could consider ordering BAC One-Elevens. Sheikh Najib: There is a big fight going on in Saudi Arabia at the present time. The DC-9 is being proposed for Saudi Arabia Airlines. It all comes back to the question of whether the present trend towards rapprochement among the Arab nations would lead to their accepting the argument that it would be more eco- nomical for them to have their One-Eleven maintenance done by MEA. What about Iraqi Airlines ? 1 have heard they have ordered Tridents and they might buy One-Elevens. I have heard that PIA are going to do Trident maintenance in Karachi. Both Iraqi and Kuwait will have to find somewhere for their Trident maintenance. Wouldyou be surprised, not having bought Tridents and One-Elevens, if you were to find that the maintenance of these aircraft would not be coming to your engineering base ? No, we could not be surprised, but I am surprised at the idea <>f a maintenance base in Kuwait. We cannot buy types of aircraft to get the maintenance. '/ you want more Comet 4Cs would you have difficulty in getting any ? No. For one thing Kuwait Airways have two that they might want to sell eventually. We don't believe the Trident will have any advantage over a well amortized Comet 4C. The cost of operating a Comet is a little bit high, but this is definitely compensated forbv its excellent performance. When you have amortized an aircraft by more than half why go for a new type of aircraft? ••ire your Viscounts coming up for sale ? Definitely not. We are very happy with them and we are keeping a* at least for the foreseeable future. What are your plans for acquiring executive jets ? We are considering the Mystere 20, but we have not signed any agreement. We are thinking of starting with three, but are still debating the matter. Again, I should say that it is definitely my opinion that you cannot go wrong if you follow the studies of Pan American. They are a very money-conscious airline, and if they place an order for 160 Mystere 20s it means that they are good. In two years' time there will be no more first-class passengers on our scheduled services, but there will always be a demand for fast, comfortable jet services on a charter basis. You actually foresee a new type of public transport ? Yes, what I call snob class—American business executives, for example, who haven't much time and who want to do a quick tour and can afford to pay, and many of whom have chartered our Viscounts. Have you considered the lower-priced HS.125? We shall certainly study the HS.125. We shall compare the two aircraft and when we have done this I can give you a better opinion. Delivery date is not a factor; we don't need these small jets for two or three years. Mr Nasr has studied the HS.125. Asad Nasr: Broadly, the 125's lower price does not make up for the better performance of the Mystere. Did you say that first-class travel "may" or "will" die out in two years'1 time? I should say will. 1 think the small jets could cover three types of operation. One would comprise contracts with organizations such as oil companies. I know the tendency within IATA is to avoid first-class if possible. Many business concerns, even oil companies, restrict first-class travel to the top men only. As flying times grow shorter, there is less inducement to travel first-class. Secondly, there might be people who want to purchase that kind of aircraft, but who do not want to run it themselves. We could supply crews and engineering. Thirdly, we would charter out the aircraft ourselves. In the airline business today there aren't many costs left to save on—80 per cent of our costs are uncontrollable. Expenditure on first-class service is something we can control. We noticed on board your Comet that sugar, salt and pepper for instance were all purchased in France. Does your tie-up with Air France influence your purchasing policy ? My guess is that these items came out of Air Liban stock. How- ever, I should like to say that our association with Air France does not in any way affect our purchasing policy. My opinion is that purchases should be made on the basis of the best for the most economical price. What are your plans for starting a South American route ? We would like to go to Madrid. We have just negotiated the route Nice - Madrid, but so far the French authorities are making it difficult to get the rights for Nice, though now they have agreed in principle, and new negotiations with the French are hopeful. There is no problem with Madrid because the Spanish have agreed in principle, and Iberia want to start flying to Beirut. We would like to go to South America because of the large Lebanese com- munity there, and because our Government would like us to go there, but as we are a private company and have no subsidies we are not interested in prestige and political routes. Our worry is to
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